YEREVAN, May 26. /TASS/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has set off to the disaster zone in northern Armenia, where heavy rains caused flooding, the press office of the Armenian prime minister said in a statement on Sunday.
"In response to media inquiries, we inform that this morning Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan listened to reports of the Interior Ministry on the consequences of the flooding and then set off to the disaster-hit area," the statement reads.
The Armenian Interior Ministry reported earlier in the day that at least one man died and another person went missing, while buildings and infrastructure were reported to sustain damages amid the flood in Armenia’s northern Lori province, which borders on Georgia.
According to the ministry’s statement, about 50-meter stretch of the Vanadzor-Alaverdi (M-6) highway was destroyed, a number of houses and household buildings were flooded and the search is underway for an elderly man who fell into the river.
In addition, the bridge over the Debed River, which leads to the Karkop settlement of the Alaverdi community collapsed as a result of the natural calamity.
The country’s Interior Ministry reported later that rescuers had already evacuated over 230 people from the disaster zone. The ministry added that some 320 rescuers were dispatched for the relief operation in the flood-hit part of the country.
Due to heavy rains, the Debed and Aghstafa Rivers overflowed their banks in Armenia's Lori province. Houses of hundreds of residents were flooded, and the interstate highway linking Armenia and Georgia was blocked. Prime Minister Pashinyan ordered to set up an emergency response headquarters to deal with the outcome of the natural calamity.